Recently I was given a roll of canvas for pictures. For some time I’ve been trying to sum up the courage/determination to do something with it. My incentive has been, in part, my sense of the rather poor quality of some of the ready-made canvases I’ve been buying. Nevertheless, although I was shown how to assemble a canvas several years ago, I’ve not had to do it since then.
Today I took the plunge, and went into the art shop in Ilkley, half-hoping, I think ,that they wouldn’t stock the stretchers, and I would be off the hook for a while. In the event, however, they had everything I needed, and I’ve come home with the raw materials for making up four frames, and a pair of canvas stretching pliers.
Of course, I haven’t actually done anything yet. Nevertheless, my excuses are diminishing fast. I suppose that there is a small window of opportunity offered by the fact that I’ve just started to do something in watercolour. If all goes according to plan, however, that excuse will be spent by the end of next week, and I really will have to grasp the nettle.
Talking of nettles, the main purpose of the visit to Ilkley was to gather blackberries. We spotted a really good place to pick them last year. Sure enough, we came home with two good boxes of them …. several pounds. I did have the foresight to take a walking stick, in order to hold at bay the intruding nettles and briars, but they do seem to have a life of their own, and they fight back. Still, I’m not too badly stung. In fact, it would take quite a lot of stinging to put me off from gathering fresh blackberries every year. My mouth is watering just thinking about them!